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Recovery
Recovery is the first episode of Mesozoic. It is set in the early Triassic, and culminates in a double-length sequence. Animals featured *''Cryobatrachus'' *Prolacerta *Cynognathus *Titanoptera *''Triadobatrachus'' *''Sharovipteryx'' *''Garjainia'' *''Lystrosaurus mongoliensis'' *Lystrosaurus panthalassicus *Helicoprion *Squid Plot Sequence One Sequence Two Sequence Three Sequence Four The dry desert landscape is almost lifeless. A Garaijinia walks across the landscape. He is the top predator here. He is hungry, and the local herbivores have moved out. He smells something, and heads towards it. He finds another Garaijinia, trapped, in mud. He doesn't care if it is his own species, food is food. He approaches the trapped Garijinia. Then, he hears rocks tumble behind him. He turns to see another Garaijinia lunging at him. He quickly runs off and the attacker slides into the trapped Garaijinia, and chases our archosaur up a steep hill. The dry season has a huge effect on these animals. But even in good times, they will attack, kill, and eat each other. The chase is long. As they get close to the top of the hill. Our archosaur turns and runs down, briefly confusing the cannibal. The cannibal turns and runs down. Our Garaijinia is almost there. Then, the cannibal leaps and bites the back of his neck. After some wrestling, our Garaijinia breaks free, and the two face off. They begin to fight, with our male trying his best to win. They both seem equal, but it becomes clear, that our male is not used to killing his own kind. The cannibal is. He gets several bad blows to our male. Desperate, and not able to fight him off, our Garaijinia turns to run. The cannibal lunges and bites down hard on his neck. Our male tries his best to break free, but the cannibal holds on tight, very tight. Eventually, the cannibal snaps his neck, and drops him. Our male has lost the fight. He begins to eat our male. Sequence Five An island off the coast of eastern Pangea is struggling. It used to be lush, but now, a severe drought has wiped out almost all of the plants on the island. This island will one day become Mongolia. As it is for Mongolia today, it is dry, deserted, and prone to prolonged droughts. On the beaches, are a herd of Lystrosaurus. They are the most common vertebrates on the planet, ranging from Antarctica, to Poland. These species are very rare, and they are the main herbivores here, used to droughts, but none like this. They dig for water, but none is found. They fight over the smallest scraps of food. One Lystrosaurus has discovered a lone horsetail and tries to eat it. However, others come in and fight for it. Soon, an intense fight breaks out, and it leaves with two of the dicynodonts with deep gashes into their sides. One plucks the horsetail and runs off with it, but is pursued by others. This island needs help, desperately. Because of this two year long drought, this Lystrosaurus species is critically endangered, only 1,000 left on this island alone. If the drought goes on any longer, they will become extinct. One day, the clouds gather, and it begins to rain. To wade it out, the remaining herd hides in a beach cave. However, it begins to rain really hard. Lighting and thunder shake the cave, scaring them. Soon, a storm surge flows, and the water floods into the cave. There is a small pocket of air, but soon another storm surge follows and the remaining Lystrosaurus drown or are swept out to sea. The aftermath is almost embarrassing. Many dead Lystrosaurus lie on the beach, or float in the Panthalassa Ocean. A few Helicoprions arrive to scavenge. They feed on squid, so their lower jaws are not for scavenging, but they still arrive to scavenge anyways. Some in the shallows float down into the sand. Sediments will be burying him, and in time, people will finds his remains in Mongolia, though unsure wether he is a Lystrosaurus, or not. It seems like the end of Lystrosaurus, on this island at least. But there are a few left. Barely enough to rebuild the species. Over the next few years, instead of a year long drought, there is almost a year long period of rain. This wets Mongolia in a way not seen in it's entire history. 1,000 years later, the island has undergone major changes. A massive waterfall is here where there was no waterfall before. There is a massive lake, and it is home to the descendants of the Lystrosaurus who survived the drought and the storm surge. They now bathe and swim in the lake. They are slightly smaller than their ancestors. They now feed on the swaths of horsetail that surrounds the lake. They are very efficient animals. But they have a new threat. On these horsetails, are small, fly like insects. They are parasitic, and wait for herbivores to eat them. Some are eaten, along with the horsetail, by the Lystrosaurus and go into their digestive tract. Others simply fly off the horsetail before being eaten, and bite the Lystrosaurus. At first, the dicynodonts feel fine. But then they begin to suffer, a lot. Some begin to cough so hard, that they run out of breath and die. Some fall unconscious. One is coughing at the edge of the lake. Eventually, he coughs so hard, is becomes unconscious, and falls right into the mud at the edge of the lake, face first. With his mouth and nose in the mud, he will slowly suffocate to death. Others get terrible, painful blisters, that grow each day and become bigger and worse, and eventually die. If they feed on these horsetails, the species will die off. However, one of the blister infected rolls in the mud. It is quite soothing, and relieves the pain. Others swim to wash off the mud, and the pain is lowered. One of the digestive tract infected begins to eat mud. This actually relieves the pain too. In short, those who used mud actually killed the insects. This is past on from generation to generation. Another 1,000 years later, the insects are gone. The Lystrosaurus came up with an inventive way to survive. They will now survive for generations, as they have the right environment for them to live in. Isolated, from all other species. Out in the open ocean, is another strange event. A huge shoal of squid are migrating. They go across the oceans of Mongolia every year, as part of their routine. And Helicoprion gather. In huge numbers. They attack, using their saw like lower jaws to grab and push the squid into their mouths to eat. They continue to attack, some spraying ink, and the shoal goes really fast. Soon, tentacles float down to the bottom of the ocean. The Helicoprion swim off, almost too full. One of them vomits and swims off. This happens every year. The sun sets on Mongolia. This island is unique, and soon, it will be part of a bigger landmass, and the most important finds will be discovered. The waves crash down onto the beach and wash out back into the ocean, and repeats the process. The Lystrosaurus will do fine, but only for another 9 million years. Then, they will die out, and the dicynodonts will slowly die out with them.